The pink, glittery dust has settled on Barbenheimer weekend, and with that, a number of revelations have come to light — including that people, it turns out, still want to go to the movies! And that Ryan Gosling is so much more than just Ken. And most importantly, that there are far more obscure, lesser-known and questionable Barbie dolls in the world than we remembered.
Barbie writer and director Greta Gerwig was given what feels like a surprising amount of creative autonomy from Mattel for her take on the iconic doll’s tale. She did not sidestep some of the toy giant’s more questionable decisions or public controversies. Many of them pop up during the film, prompting audiences to wonder: “That couldn’t be real, could it?”
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But real they are. Real dolls, anyway. From Ken’s “buddy” Allan to Growing Up Skipper, here are all the very real and, in some cases, very weird Barbies that appear in the film.
Warning: Barbie spoilers and truly puzzling information ahead.
Allan
Allan, left, pictured in reproduced original form with Midge, Barbie and Ken
Mattel, Inc.
If Ken is “just Ken,” Allan is … only Allan. And literally the only Allan, since his character in the film is the only one of his kind, unlike the many Kens and Barbies.
Allan was introduced as Ken’s best friend in 1964. According to History, Mattel actually used the fact that he could fit into all of Ken’s clothes as a selling point, but Attitude notes that this also led to rumors that Ken and Allan were a little too close. After a very brief life of living in Ken’s shadows (and in the same striped shirt as in the film), Allan was discontinued that same decade before being rereleased as Midge’s husband in the ’90s.
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After watching Michael Cera’s awkwardly endearing turn as the lonesome sidekick, we wouldn’t be surprised if he went promptly back into production today.
In the film, “Allan is sort of like a person without a group that he belongs to, he’s kind of a loner, in a way,” Cera said in an interview. “I think the joke about that, at least how I interpret it, is that Allan the doll … didn’t have a very successful run. [He’s] sort of this marginalised person in this world of Kens.”
Attitude reports that “conspiracists” think Allan was paired with Midge in the ’90s to “canonise Allan as heterosexual,” but it hasn’t stopped Allan from becoming something of a queer icon over the years.
“As a non-binary person I relate to Allan a lot!” said one TikToker in a slew of comments. “I see him as my rep ✨ not quite Barbie, not quite Ken. Just ✨ Allan✨ .”
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Pregnant Midge
Pregnant Midge in the Happy Family Barbie Collection collection at the 2003 Toy Fair.
Lawrence Lucier via Getty Images
As we mentioned, one of the more refreshing aspects of seeing Barbie Land through Gerwig’s pink-tinted lens was the director’s unwillingness to shy away from the toy company’s missteps.
We’re reintroduced to Pregnant Midge early on in the movie, and she comes back to haunt the Mattel execs later on in the film, too. A not-yet-pregnant Midge originally debuted in 1963, and there’s even a Wedding Party Midge gift set from some 30 years later that includes Midge and Allan (for some reason renamed “Alan”) alongside Barbie and Ken as bridesmaid and best man.
A companion to Mattel’s Earring Magic Barbie figure, Earring Magic Ken was released in 1993. After people pointed out how gay he seemed (a necklace that looked like a cock ring didn’t help), he was actually recalled by the company.
Yvonne Hemsey via Getty Images
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What’s less boring than Ken? A Ken in a mesh purple shirt and pleather vest, with slicked-back bleached-blond highlights, an earring, of course, and a … necklace.
This 1993 model of Ken, long referred to as the time Mattel “made Ken gay,” quickly became one of the company’s best-selling dolls and a true queer icon before being recalled just months later after then-manager of marketing and communications, Lisa McKendall, was forced to give one of the greatest corporate statements of all time.
“We’re not in the business of putting cock rings into the hands of little girls,” the statement read. There’s at least one Earring Magic Ken currently available on eBay for $154. (Just saying.)
Palm Beach Sugar Daddy Ken
What was Mattel thinking with Sugar Daddy Ken?
Mattel, Inc.
His release wasn’t the most puzzling Barbie decision (see Growing Up Skipper below), but it was strange nonetheless. Palm Beach Sugar Daddy Ken, which is exactly what it sounds like, was a 2009 doll marketed to adults wearing a lime-green jacquard blazer and toting a tiny white dog named Sugar. He also came with swim trunks, slides and sunglasses, and apparently retailed for a whopping $82. In the film, he claims that his name is a misunderstanding — he’s merely Sugar the dog’s daddy. Uh-huh. Sure.
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Video Girl Barbie
“I have a TV in my back,” Video Girl Barbie quips in the film, deadpan, while showing off her embedded screen to the human visitors in Barbie Land. This version of Barbie may seem innocuous, if not a bit weird, but the FBI said differently.
The agency put out a “cyber crime alert” following her release in 2010, citing her ability to stream up to 30 minutes of recording onto a computer as a potential “dangerous tool for pedophiles.”Yikes.
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Skipper, Barbie’s little sister, was first released in 1964. In 1975, Mattel decided it was time to let her grow up before your very eyes. This strange doll was advertised as two dolls in one: Skipper as the girl we knew, and, by twisting her arm around, a teenage Skipper who grew upward and also outward. Yes, her breasts enlarged as she got taller. You can see this in action in a commercial for the doll, which was perhaps predictably discontinued in 1977.
Tanner The Dog
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When Barbie, err, Margot Robbie, enters Weird Barbie’s house, she is greeted by a strange-looking dog. A strange-looking pooping dog. “That surely can’t have been real,” you might have thought to yourself.
And you would have thought wrong. Tanner the dog came with Barbie and did things a real dog does, like accepting treats that make their way through his digestive tract and out of his body by way of tiny brown pellets.
A recall for the Barbie and Tanner play set was issued because its poop scoop accessory contained a small magnet that could come loose. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said that if multiple magnets were swallowed by a child, they could attract each other and cause a potentially fatal intestinal perforation or blockage.
You could say Barbiefans are going Oppenheimer on some far-right criticisms of the film.
Late last week, some fans of the patriarchy attempted to discourage people from going to see the new Barbie movie, with one critic on Twitter calling it a “two-hour woke-a-thon” full of “nuclear-level rage against men”.
Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro seemed to lead the charge on Friday — the day the movie premiered — by tweeting that his producers “dragged” him to see the movie, and called it “one of the most woke movies I have ever seen”.
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He also promised to release a full review of the “flaming garbage heap of a film” the next day on YouTube, which he did, in a video called “Ben Shapiro DESTROYS The Barbie Movie For 43 Minutes”.
But Shapiro wasn’t alone in his hatred for the movie’s feminist themes.
Billionaire and Twitter X.com owner Elon Musk also ridiculed the film, tweeting: If “you take a shot every time Barbie says the word ‘patriarchy’, you will pass out before the movie ends.”
Far-right media figure Jack Posobiec struck a similar tone, calling Barbie a “man-hating Woke propaganda fest” and “possibly the most anti-male film ever made”. Ginger Gaetz, wife of Republican Representative Matt Gaetz, called for a boycott of the film despite attending a premiere event all decked out in pink and posing in a Barbie box. She criticised the movie for neglecting to “address any notion of faith or family”, trying to “normalise the idea that men and women can’t collaborate positively”, and for portraying Ken as not masculine.
The movie has been described as highlighting very basic feminist themes by many people on Twitter, with HuffPost’s culture writer, Candice Frederick, describing the tone as “feminist-lite”.
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“Barbie is not particularly feminist. It’s a lot more complicated than that, just like most people are — and how any great character should be presented,” Frederick wrote.
Regardless of whether or not Barbie is too woke or not feminist enough, many Twitter users had some pretty funny responses to the whole conservative backlash — and female camaraderie they felt while watching the film in theaters. To read the most hilarious responses, strap on your favourite rollerblades and roll, er, scroll on down!
Ok so Barbie is “anti-male” but Oppenheimer is fine??? Sorry but who killed more men?
Look I don’t think Barbie was or needed to be subversive but I will say the first thing my daughter said after we got out of the theater was “what’s patriarchy” so it’s doing enough work, guys
Every pink-covered woman at this theater greeted one another with enthusiastic “hi Barbie!!!”s and I feel like I have transcended from this plane to a feminist dreamscape hello
with the barbie movie coming out, i think we should start treating men. the same way they treat us when a new superhero movie comes out. you spot a man in the theater, you ask: oh you’re gonna watch barbie? name every barbie movie ever made. who’s bibble? sing every word of i’m –
No, of course I never played with Barbies as a kid. Those were for girls! I was doing boy stuff, not stuff for little girls. Anyway, as a grown man, here is my review of the Barbie movie, which made me furious because it didn’t cater to me.
the way barbie isn’t even revolutionary but called “anti-men”. shows you how most men are easily uncomfortable, even by the Most liberal feminist take like that’s sad….
the funniest part about conservatives calling barbie woke is like what did they expect. did they want barbie to promote being a stay at home wife and homeschooling children or whatever? barbies whole thing is she could do any job men could do lol, she has never been “antiwoke”
fuck they made barbie woke. fuck. FUCK! how am I supposed to go about my day knowing my favorite doll isn’t in the freedom caucus? i need mom to get me a milk before i pass out pic.twitter.com/loQYIntPP4
It’s funny to see conservative losers crying about the Barbie movie like Mattel hasn’t been selling Barbies that are progressive, inclusive, feminist and diverse for literal decades. pic.twitter.com/iFrmMhiOAQ
If you’ve watched TV, gone online or even just ventured outside your home lately, it can’t have escaped your attention that Greta Gerwig’s long-awaited Barbie film is finally almost here.
The hype has been building ever since we caught our first glimpse of Margot Robbie in character as the iconic doll, but things ramped up when the first meme-ready trailer dropped in the spring, followed by a marketing campaign that dominated social media.
As a result, the film has undoubtedly become the most talked-about of 2023, and while we’re happy to hold up our hands and say we’ve been as swept up in the pink tornado as much as anyone… it’s also been hard to ignore that tiny voice in the back of our heads that just kept on questioning: “Can the Barbie film – or, indeed, any film – actually live up to all this hype?”.
Well, we’re pleased to report that it can. Not only is Barbie an effective dose of candy-coloured escapism, and one of the funniest new comedies to come out in recent history, it’s also genuinely thought-provoking and, at times, quite devastating. What a relief.
Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as seen on the poster for Barbie
Warner Bros
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In case you’re one of those who hasn’t spent the last three months watching the Barbie trailer at least once a day (we can’t be the only ones, right?), the film centres around the titular doll, played by Margot, who spends her days in Barbie Land hanging out with her Barbie pals, having Barbie dance parties and generally living her best Barbie life. Until she’s not.
From nowhere, things quickly start to unravel in her life. Her unnaturally-arched Barbie feet suddenly hit the floor, her perfect routine is thrown out of whack and, oh yeah, she starts to be consumed by thoughts of impending death. Fun!
Guided by the oracle “Weird Barbie” (and accompanied, begrudgingly, by her always-eager right-hand man Ken), Margot’s character ventures to the “Real World” to help set things right, where she discovers she and her Barbie pals haven’t quite impacted society for the better in the way they’d hoped.
It also turns out to be an eye-opening experience for Ken, who – after a lifetime in Barbie’s shadow – begins to flourish in his new surroundings, with genuinely unsettling results.
Ryan Gosling in character as Ken
Warner Bros./Jaap Buitendijk
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This is just one of the areas the Barbie movie managed to surprise us. Our biggest worry heading into the film was that a lot of the plot may have already been given away in the trailer. While admittedly much of the first act plays out like an extended version of the teaser, with a few clever gags added in , there were still plenty of satisfying twists ahead – particularly involving Ryan’s Ken and Rhea Perlman’s mysterious character – that we’re happy were kept under wraps until now.
It’s hard to play favourites among the cast, but we have to shout out Margot for her stand-out performance, helping us root for a character who could so easily have become one-dimensional or even irritating in the wrong hands.
Much has been made of Ryan’s performance as Ken, and he deserves it, taking the character to places we truly didn’t expect, and supporting players Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, America Ferrera and Will Ferrell all deserved to be singled out for praise, too.
But it has to be said, the true star of the show is Greta Gerwig, who directed and co-wrote Barbie. The three-time Oscar nominee created a film that’s visually stunning and so jam-packed with fun details and Easter eggs that the only way to spot them all would be through repeated viewing.
She’s also gifted film fans with a script that manages to be both laugh-out-loud silly and heart-breaking – often within the same scene – and it’s pretty much guaranteed to be a quote-along sleepover go-to for Generation Alpha, akin to Clueless, Mean Girls and Easy A before it.
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Ken and Barbie prepare to take a journey to the “Real World”
Warner Bros
The filmmaker mostly manages to toe the line between irreverence and outright disrespect, sending up Barbie and pointing out its critiques without turning the whole thing into a hatchet job. She also makes it clear that there’s room for all viewpoints on the brand – love, hate, apathy – in her Barbie Land.
Of course, a Mattel-endorsed Barbie movie is still a Mattel-endorsed Barbie movie, and even the teenager who at one point brands the character a “fascist” who’s responsible for “setting the feminist movement back 50 years”, glorifying capitalism and “destroying the planet” is won over by her in the end.
Still, to anyone nervous about Barbie living up to expectations, take a sigh of relief, gather up your Barbie pals and get ready for some big laughs. Life in plastic, we’re relieved to say, is every bit as fantastic as Aqua promised all those years ago.
Barbie is in cinemas from 21 July. Watch the trailer below:
","type":"video","meta":{"author":"Warner Bros. Pictures","author_url":"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjmJDM5pRKbUlVIzDYYWb6g","cache_age":86400,"description":"Giant blowout party ✅\nPlanned choreography ✅\nNew #BarbieTheMovie Trailer ✅\nOnly in Theaters July 21.\n\nTo live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken.\n\nPre-order/save Barbie The Album: https://barbiethealbum.lnk.to/BTA\n\nFrom Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig (“Little Women,” “Lady Bird”) comes “Barbie,” starring Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie (“Bombshell,” “I, Tonya”) and Ryan Gosling (“La La Land,” “Half Nelson”) as Barbie and Ken, alongside America Ferrera (“End of Watch,” the “How to Train Your Dragon” films), Kate McKinnon (“Bombshell,” “Yesterday”), Issa Rae (“The Photograph,” “Insecure”), Rhea Perlman (“I’ll See You in My Dreams,” “Matilda”), and Will Ferrell (the “Anchorman” films, “Talladega Nights”). The film also stars Michael Cera (“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” “Juno”), Ariana Greenblatt (“Avengers: Infinity War,” “65”), Ana Cruz Kayne (“Little Women”), Emma Mackey (“Emily,” “Sex Education”), Hari Nef (“Assassination Nation,” “Transparent”), Alexandra Shipp (the “X-Men” films), Kingsley Ben-Adir (“One Night in Miami,” “Peaky Blinders”), Simu Liu (“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”), Ncuti Gatwa (“Sex Education”), Scott Evans (“Grace and Frankie”), Jamie Demetriou (“Cruella”), Connor Swindells (“Sex Education,” “Emma.”), Sharon Rooney (“Dumbo,” “Jerk”), Nicola Coughlan (“Bridgerton,” “Derry Girls”), Ritu Arya (“The Umbrella Academy”), Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Dua Lipa and Oscar-winner Helen Mirren (“The Queen”).\n\nGerwig directed “Barbie” from a screenplay by Gerwig & Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach (“Marriage Story,” “The Squid and the Whale”), based on Barbie by Mattel. The film’s producers are Oscar nominee David Heyman (“Marriage Story,” “Gravity”), Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Robbie Brenner, with Gerwig, Baumbach, Ynon Kreiz, Richard Dickson, Michael Sharp, Josey McNamara, Courtenay Valenti, Toby Emmerich and Cate Adams serving as executive producers.\n\nGerwig’s creative team behind the camera included Oscar-nominated director of photography Rodrigo Prieto (“The Irishman,” “Silence,” “Brokeback Mountain”), six-time Oscar-nominated production designer Sarah Greenwood (“Beauty and the Beast,” “Anna Karenina”), editor Nick Houy (“Little Women,” “Lady Bird”), Oscar-winning costume designer Jacqueline Durran (“Little Women,” “Anna Karenina”), visual effects supervisor Glen Pratt (“Paddington 2,” “Beauty and the Beast”) and music supervisor George Drakoulias (“White Noise,” “Marriage Story”), with music by Oscar winners Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt (“A Star Is Born”).\n\nWarner Bros. Pictures Presents a Heyday Films Production, a LuckyChap Entertainment Production, a NB/GG Pictures Production, a Mattel Production, “Barbie.” The film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures and released in theaters only nationwide on July 21, 2023 and beginning internationally on July 19, 2023.","options":{"_cc_load_policy":{"label":"Closed captions","value":false},"_end":{"label":"End on","placeholder":"ex.: 11, 1m10s","value":""},"_start":{"label":"Start from","placeholder":"ex.: 11, 1m10s","value":""},"click_to_play":{"label":"Hold load & play until clicked","value":false}},"provider_name":"YouTube","thumbnail_height":720,"thumbnail_url":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pBk4NYhWNMM/maxresdefault.jpg","thumbnail_width":1280,"title":"Barbie | Main 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Bringing the most iconic doll in the world to life on the big screen is no small feat – but if the first reactions from critics are anything to go by, it seems like Greta Gerwig has pulled it off with her Barbie movie.
As soon as the first trailer dropped earlier this year, it was clear that Greta, along with star and executive producer Margot Robbie and the rest of the film’s production team, went to painstaking lengths to immerse viewers in Barbie’s plastic fantastic world.
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The film features full-size Dream House sets, costumes inspired by famous Barbie looks and even nods to Barbie controversies (like the inclusion of pregnant Midge, a doll who caused outrage upon release) – the attention to detail looks impeccable.
From Greta’s unusual pitch to film executives to the cameos that didn’t happen and Ryan Gosling’s costume brainwave, these behind-the-scenes facts should tide you over until the film arrives on Friday 21 July…
The woman who inspired Barbie’s name has a cameo in the film
Barbie meets her namesake in the new film’s trailer
Warner Bros
If you’ve watched the Barbie trailer over and over again (guilty!), you might be familiar with one sequence showing Margot’s character meeting an older lady on a park bench, who tells her: “Humans get one ending. Ideas live forever.”
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That woman is none other Barbara Handler, who the first ever Barbie was named after. She’s the daughter of Barbie inventor Ruth Handler (who also named Ken after her son, Kenneth).
The production used so much pink paint, they ‘cleaned out’ their suppliers
Barbie Land is a pastel paradise – causing a shortage of pink paint the world over
Warner Bros
Bringing Barbie Land to life required a lot of pink paint. So much, it turns out, that the film industry’s go-to paint suppliers, Rosco, basically had to hand over all their stock.
Lauren Proud, Rosco’s vice president of global marketing, confirmed that the film “used as much paint as we had” in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
“There was this shortage, and then we gave them everything we could,” she explained.
This Barbie doesn’t need CGI effects
This shot of Barbie’s perpetually-arched feet appeared in the first trailer
Warner Bros
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Sure, Christopher Nolan may have recreated a nuclear explosion without CGI for Oppenheimer, but Barbie still features some pretty impressive practical effects of its own too.
In one instantly memorable shot from the film’s trailer, we see Barbie step out of her fluffy high heels, only for her feet to remain perfectly arched (just like the doll’s).
Greta decided against using CGI for Barbie’s feet (perhaps she’s still traumatised by the Cats movie). “I thought, ‘Oh god, no! That’s terrifying! That’s a nightmare’,” she told The Project.
The shot eventually took “about eight takes”, according to Margot. “I was holding on to a bar, but that’s it,” she told Fandango. “I wasn’t in a harness or anything. I just walked up and kind of held onto the bar above camera.”
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Margot and Greta had to perform a scene for a Mattel exec to win him over
According to TIME magazine, at one point during production, Mattel’s Chief Operating Officer Richard Dickson flew over to London to intervene as he believed that one scene was “off-brand” for Barbie.
“[Dickson] says he took a flight to the London set to argue with Gerwig and Robbie over a particular scene, which he felt was off-brand,” the report says. “But Gerwig and Robbie performed the scene for him and changed his mind.” Who could argue with that?
A chance encounter with a Ken doll persuaded Ryan to take the role
Ryan Gosling at CinemaCon earlier this year
Greg Doherty via Getty Images
After reading the Barbie script, Ryan headed outside to mull things over.
“I walked out in the backyard and you know where I found Ken?” he told Jimmy Fallon during an appearance on The Tonight Show. “Face down in the mud next to a squished lemon.”
He took a photo of poor downtrodden Ken, and sent it to Greta.
“I shall be your Ken,” he wrote in the message. “For his story must be told.”
He also came up with the idea that Ken would wear his own branded underwear
Ryan Gosling in character as Ken
Warner Bros./Jaap Buitendijk
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When the first promotional picture showing Ryan in full Ken get-up, complete with bleach blond hair, landed online last year, fans quickly honed in on one hilarious detail: the fact that Ken’s underwear was specially branded with his name on the waistband.
According to costume designer Jacqueline Durran, the idea came from the actor, who had the brainwave in a late fitting. “We just rushed to make it,” she told Vogue.
The Barbie gang attended ‘movie church’ during filming…
When production was in full swing, Margot’s production company LuckyChap put on weekly film screenings at Notting Hill’s Electric Cinema, a tradition which came to be known as “movie church”.
Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig at Barbie’s London premiere
Gareth Cattermole via Getty Images
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That wasn’t the only event that the cast got to attend together. Before filming kicked off, Greta hosted a Barbie sleepover at Claridges and invited some of the female cast (the Kens could attend too, but they weren’t allowed to stay the night).
“Honestly, it just felt like it would be the most fun way to kick everything off,” the director told The Guardian. “And it’s something you don’t get to do that much as an adult. Like, ‘I’m just going to go have a sleepover with my friends…’”
… And went on a night out to see Magic Mike Live
In an interview with Rolling Stone UK, Ncuti Gatwa (who plays one of the Kens) described the cast’s trip to Magic Mike Live as “one of the best nights of my life”.
“I don’t know how I made it through any filming in the week after, my voice was gone from screaming so much,” he admitted. “The videos in the group chat the next morning were the best.
“Greta Gerwig’s assistant was pulled up on stage and given a lap dance and Greta was screaming in delight. Afterwards, we went and danced our hearts out. Margot is a very, very good party host. She’s queen of the vibes.”
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Margot left a special ‘beach-related’ gift for Ryan every day during filming
Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as seen on the poster for Barbie
Warner Bros
Not only did Margot help cast and crew get into the Barbie spirit by mandating a “pink day” dress code once a week on set, she also channeled her character by providing her co-star with some extremely on-brand gifts.
“[Margot] left a pink present with a pink bow, from Barbie to Ken, every day while we were filming,” Ryan told Vogue earlier this year. “They were all beach-related. Like puka shells, or a sign that says ‘Pray for surf’. Because Ken’s job is just beach. I’ve never quite figured out what that means. But I felt like she was trying to help Ken understand, through those gifts that she was giving.”
Oh, and Margot took that ‘pink day’ very seriously
“Margot had this pink day once a week, where everyone had to wear something pink,” Ryan told People magazine.
“If you didn’t, you were fined. She would go around collecting the fines, and she would donate it to a charity.”
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Greta wrote Mattel and Warner Bros executives a ‘surreal’ poem to get them on side
Greta at a Barbie photocall in London
Stuart C. Wilson via Getty Images
As part of her initial pitch, Greta came up with a poem that she has since described as “surreal” in an interview with The Guardian.
So far, she’s kept quiet on the poem’s contents, but she has likened it to religious writings like the Apostle’s Creed, a Christian prayer, and the lament of Job.
“Shockingly, it does actually communicate some of the vibe of the movie,” she said.
Greta really wanted these two long-time collaborators to make a cameo – but the timings didn’t work
Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet appeared in Greta’s first two solo directorial efforts, Lady Bird and Little Women, and the filmmaker had lined up Barbie cameo roles for them too. Unfortunately, the timing didn’t work out, with Saoirse working on an adaptation of The Outrun and Timothée also being ridiculously in-demand.
Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet looking – it has to be said – not unlike Barbie and Ken at a Little Women photocall
David M. Benett via Getty Images
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“It was always going to have to be like a sort of smaller thing because [Saoirse] was actually producing at the time, which I am so proud of her for,” Greta told CinemaBlend.
“And of course, it’s brilliant. But it was going to be a specialty cameo. I was also going to do a specialty cameo with Timmy.
“Both of them couldn’t do it and I was so annoyed. But I love them so much. But it felt like doing something without my children. I mean, I’m not their mom, but I sort of feel like their mom.”
There was another star who didn’t make it into the film either
“Gal Gadot is Barbie energy,” Margot explained.
“Because Gal Gadot is so impossibly beautiful, but you don’t hate her for being that beautiful, because she’s so genuinely sincere, and she’s so enthusiastically kind, that it’s almost dorky. It’s like right before being a dork.”
Gal Gadot
MICHAEL TRAN via Getty Images
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Unfortunately for Margot and Greta, however, Gal wasn’t available at the time of filming either, meaning we never got to see the Wonder Woman star in Barbie Land.
Margot’s connections with Chanel shaped Barbie’s wardrobe
The majority of Margot’s outfits were custom-made by Jacqueline Durran and her team, but “if Margot wears anything that we didn’t make, it’s pretty much Chanel,” the costume designer told Vogue.
Margot has been an ambassador for the French fashion house since 2018, and the company “sent us anything and everything that we wanted”.
Margot didn’t initially think she’d be the one to play Barbie
Barbie’s journey to the big screen has been a long one. First, Amy Schumer was cast in the role, but later left the project when it became clear that it didn’t align with her vision for the film.
She later revealed that an early sign was when the team behind the movie sent her a pair of Manolo Blahniks to celebrate her hiring. “The idea that that’s just what every woman must want, right there, I should have gone, ‘You’ve got the wrong gal,’” she told The Hollywood Reporter last year.
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Amy Schumer was originally supposed to play Barbie
NBC via Getty Images
Anne Hathaway then joined the film, but plans fell through.
And even when Margot’s LuckyChap production took the helm, it still wasn’t a given that she would take the lead role, eventually being announced in July 2019, two years before Greta signed on to direct.
The Barbie dreamhouse sets play with scale to make the actors appear more doll-like
In Barbie Land, all the proportions are deliberately a little bit off.
Set decorator Katie Spencer told Architectural Digest that they adjusted the dreamhouse rooms to be 23% smaller than the usual human size. So, for example, the ceilings were “quite close to one’s head”, as Greta put it, “and it only takes a few paces to cross the room”, as would be the case in an actual Barbie house.
The overall effect was to make the actors “seem big in the space but small overall”.
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Pictures, Written by Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach, Directed by Greta Gerwig.\r\n\r\nDirector: Jasia Kaulbach\r\nSenior Producer: Vara Reese\r\nDirector of Creative Development: Morgan Crossley\r\nLine Producer: Joe Buscemi\r\nAssociate Producer: Josh Crowe\r\nProduction Manager: Melissa Heber\r\nProduction Coordinator: Fernando Davila\r\nPost Production Supervisor: Andrew Montague\r\nPost Production Coordinator: Holly Frew\r\nSupervising Editor: Christina Mankellow\r\nGraphics Supervisor: Ross Rackin \r\nGraphics, Animation, VFX: Brady Jackson, Léa Kichler\r\n\r\nShot and edited by Mob Scene: @mobsceneagency\r\n\n\nWant even more AD? 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You won’t see any proper writing in Barbie Land – instead, the Barbies communicate through scribbles, Margot explained.
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“There’s no actual writing in Barbie Land,” she told Architectural Digest. “It’s just scribbled the way kids kind of write endless amounts of, you know, nothing. But it’s all very beautiful.”
Playing Ken helped Ryan ‘make peace’ with his Disney Channel days
Before Ryan was an Oscar-nominated movie star, he was an all-singing, all-dancing member of The Mickey Mouse Club (you’ve almost certainly seen the video clips of his fancy footwork). He thought he’d turned his back on his Mouseketeer past, but playing Ken helped him reconnect with his inner child star.
“At a certain point I thought I had left that kid behind, and I realized that I needed his help to make this movie,” he told EW. “So I had to go back and make peace with him and ask for his help. It was good for me.” We’re certain that his Disney past came in useful when he was filming his epic musical number, “I’m Just Ken”.
Barbie arrives in UK cinemas on Friday 21 July. Watch the trailer below:
","type":"video","meta":{"author":"Warner Bros. Pictures","author_url":"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjmJDM5pRKbUlVIzDYYWb6g","cache_age":86400,"description":"Giant blowout party ✅\nPlanned choreography ✅\nNew #BarbieTheMovie Trailer ✅\nOnly in Theaters July 21.\n\nTo live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken.\n\nPre-order/save Barbie The Album: https://barbiethealbum.lnk.to/BTA\n\nFrom Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig (“Little Women,” “Lady Bird”) comes “Barbie,” starring Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie (“Bombshell,” “I, Tonya”) and Ryan Gosling (“La La Land,” “Half Nelson”) as Barbie and Ken, alongside America Ferrera (“End of Watch,” the “How to Train Your Dragon” films), Kate McKinnon (“Bombshell,” “Yesterday”), Issa Rae (“The Photograph,” “Insecure”), Rhea Perlman (“I’ll See You in My Dreams,” “Matilda”), and Will Ferrell (the “Anchorman” films, “Talladega Nights”). 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The film’s producers are Oscar nominee David Heyman (“Marriage Story,” “Gravity”), Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Robbie Brenner, with Gerwig, Baumbach, Ynon Kreiz, Richard Dickson, Michael Sharp, Josey McNamara, Courtenay Valenti, Toby Emmerich and Cate Adams serving as executive producers.\n\nGerwig’s creative team behind the camera included Oscar-nominated director of photography Rodrigo Prieto (“The Irishman,” “Silence,” “Brokeback Mountain”), six-time Oscar-nominated production designer Sarah Greenwood (“Beauty and the Beast,” “Anna Karenina”), editor Nick Houy (“Little Women,” “Lady Bird”), Oscar-winning costume designer Jacqueline Durran (“Little Women,” “Anna Karenina”), visual effects supervisor Glen Pratt (“Paddington 2,” “Beauty and the Beast”) and music supervisor George Drakoulias (“White Noise,” “Marriage Story”), with music by Oscar winners Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt (“A Star Is Born”).\n\nWarner Bros. 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Despite multiple trailers for Barbiedropping earlier this year, details of the film’s plot remain largely unknown — even to Margot Robbie’s body double.
In an interview in The New York Times, Emma Eastwood detailed her experience subbing in for the movie star after initially being turned away as an extra.
Advertisement
“I was on this for two weeks, and I barely know what the movie is about,” Eastwood said, adding that the production team “did a very good job of keeping the plot hidden.”
“There were a couple times they said the whole cast would be there and it would be an important day, but they never actually gave me any details of what we would be doing until I was on set,” she said.
Eastwood, who revealed that she was first hired as a hand double for Robbie but went on to appear in additional scenes, said she would receive commands on set with little explanation of the context.
","type":"video","meta":{"author":"Warner Bros. Pictures","author_url":"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjmJDM5pRKbUlVIzDYYWb6g","cache_age":86400,"description":"Giant blowout party ✅\nPlanned choreography ✅\nNew #BarbieTheMovie Trailer ✅\nOnly in Theaters July 21.\n\nTo live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken.\n\nPre-order/save Barbie The Album: https://barbiethealbum.lnk.to/BTA\n\nFrom Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig (“Little Women,” “Lady Bird”) comes “Barbie,” starring Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie (“Bombshell,” “I, Tonya”) and Ryan Gosling (“La La Land,” “Half Nelson”) as Barbie and Ken, alongside America Ferrera (“End of Watch,” the “How to Train Your Dragon” films), Kate McKinnon (“Bombshell,” “Yesterday”), Issa Rae (“The Photograph,” “Insecure”), Rhea Perlman (“I’ll See You in My Dreams,” “Matilda”), and Will Ferrell (the “Anchorman” films, “Talladega Nights”). 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She recalled being told to lie facedown on the floor for an hour while shooting one scene, causing her makeup to smear.
“When I got up, I literally felt drunk,” Eastwood told the Times. “I have no idea what that scene was about.”
Barbie, based on Mattel’s famous Barbie and Ken dolls, has been in the works for more than a decade.
An official website provides only a vague synopsis of the live-action film: “To live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken.”
Along with Robbie, the highly anticipated movie features Ryan Gosling, Will Ferrell, Michael Cera, America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon and others.
Directed by Greta Gerwig, Barbie is set to hit cinemas on 21 July.
As promotional film rollouts go, the Barbie movie’s marketing campaign has to be up there with the best of them.
Not only do they confirm long-standing rumours that lead stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are not the only Barbie and Kens in the film, but they see the star-studded cast posing for a selection of iconic shots revealing the ‘alternative’ versions of the dolls and other additional characters.
Previously announced stars including Sex Education actors Emma Mackey and Ncuti Gatwa, Emerald Fennell, Issa Rae, Hari Nef, America Ferrera, Simu Liu and Kate McKinnon all appear alongside a fresh-batch of famous faces.
They include the likes of Helen Mirren, Will Ferrell, Dua Lipa, Bridgerton’s Nicola Coughlan, Sex Education’s Connor Swindells and Stath Let’s Flats creator Jamie Demetriou, who will all appear in the film.
The new casting announcements has basically got everyone wondering who isn’t going to be in the film when it is released in July.
So naturally, the internet has been having some fun coming up with ideas of who else should be in it…
Alongside the new movie posters, a second more detailed trailer also debuted – which you can watch at the top of this post.
Barbie is written and directed by Greta Gerwig, known for helming Little Women and Lady Bird, as well as acting in films like Frances Ha and 20th Century Women.
Barbie is released in cinemas worldwide on 21 July 2023.
